Absolutely. Had a young woman knowingly taken drugs while pregnant, they could be charged with a variety of things including child abuse. The doctor suspected she was pregnant which is why he gave her a pregnancy test. Suspecting that, why would he at the same time proscribe morphine before the results were in? That aside, while the hospital staff was unaware that the patient was pregnant when they started the IV, for those 48 minutes they knew or should have known that they were giving morphine to that unborn child. They should have immediately stopped the IV when the pregnancy test result came in.
Neonatal respiratory depression is possible when morphine is used in labor
which fits perfectly with the facts of this case. I think it was a surprise to everyone involved that she was in labor, but it probably shouldn’t have been to medical professionals who thought about her symptoms combined with the discovery that she was pregnant.
The part about continuing morphine for 48 minutes after figuring out she was pregnant ought to be damning evidence against someone, but not her
Absolutely. Had a young woman knowingly taken drugs while pregnant, they could be charged with a variety of things including child abuse. The doctor suspected she was pregnant which is why he gave her a pregnancy test. Suspecting that, why would he at the same time proscribe morphine before the results were in? That aside, while the hospital staff was unaware that the patient was pregnant when they started the IV, for those 48 minutes they knew or should have known that they were giving morphine to that unborn child. They should have immediately stopped the IV when the pregnancy test result came in.
I think you meant prescribe instead of proscribe (one means “recommend” the other means “forbid”)
Morphine is not contraindicated during pregnancy, however one of the risks listed is
which fits perfectly with the facts of this case. I think it was a surprise to everyone involved that she was in labor, but it probably shouldn’t have been to medical professionals who thought about her symptoms combined with the discovery that she was pregnant.